Hello all, finally picked up my EB this saturday. New to early broncos but not Broncos in general as I own a 94 Fullsize as well.
Anyway on to what you really care about!
1976 Ford Bronco Ranger - I have always wanted a early bronco and I have been looking for years, but everyone wanted so much money for one without rust or one that was a basket case.. finally found one in Butte Montana and flew up on saturday and drove her 800 miles home yesterday!
The Good:
Unrestored, 99% rust free, no real dents and never been in an accident or offroad incident, disc brakes, power steering, everything pretty much works as is.. just needs a good going through and refresh and then restore.. has 99,998 miles on her as of last night... Iam keeping it stock, with safety and tasteful upgrades for the future.
The Bad
There is an area of rust on the back passenger side quarter panel and I dont know how bad it is yet.. its just in the seam but will have to remove the inside covers to get to the fender well and see.. as always I expect surprises and would be surprised if the rust wasn't worse after i start looking on inner fender, but seeing how its probably confined to the one area.. iam ok with that.
There is an electrical gremlin, headlights like to flicker off and on periodically over rough road spots.. probably a short in the wire harness.. have a feeling its near the taillights. no biggie after chasing a short in my 94 fullsize...
Transmission has a slight leak, I think its from sitting up in the dry cold of Montana.. so the seals probably need to be replaced. Again not a big deal, i will be pulling the trans and TC to rebuild them anyway..
Anyway here are some more pics.. all with my phone for now as I didn't have my camera yesterday..
My plans are to keep her stock and upgrade with reliability and safety in mind. My original plans were to restore the truck to factory specs and as she would have been new. Unfortunately the original engine was removed in 1983... so that kinda frees me up to do what I want with her. Now I think Iam going to keep it uncut but upgrade the brakes, suspension and interior to be a reliable and fun DD. The original color was Yellow, haven't pulled the tag info so not sure the exactl color but I will do that soon. I kinda like the blue/white so one day I will have to pull the tub off and have it professionally done... but for now the paint is good enough ;)
Anyway, would love to meet up soon with a few of you to go over the little guy as I have zero experience with the older broncos and would love to hear what you have to say and recommend on this one as I move forward. I live in central Denver near wash park so hope to meet up sometime!
I guess I can leave a photo of my other rig ;)
